


Tiny

by wendywobbles2016



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-22
Updated: 2020-06-22
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:41:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24866236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wendywobbles2016/pseuds/wendywobbles2016
Summary: From the following prompt  “I may be small but I am mighty” came this little story.
Relationships: Katniss Everdeen/Peeta Mellark
Comments: 6
Kudos: 52





	Tiny

**Author's Note:**

  * For [endlessnightlock (Endlessnightlock)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Endlessnightlock/gifts).



> Featuring Toast!Girl this is set several years after the war, they are just a normal family, who have survived extraordinary challenges and although there will always be reminders sometimes they aren’t bad.

“Daddy!Daddy!” Lyra Mellark called from the yard behind the Mellark Bakery. 

Peeta Mellark glanced out the window of the Mellark Bakery kitchen to see what had caught his seven year old daughter’s attention. The Bakery was closed and he was just tidying up while waiting for his wife Katniss to get in from her trip to the woods then the three of them would walk the short distance to home. 

Peeta watched as his daughter scrambled out from under the bush at the back fence. 

“Shit.” he muttered and grinned she was always up to something. 

He walked quickly outside as she was standing up from under the bush. Her braids has come loose her black curly hair sticking up and out all over, her jeans were scuffed and dirty like her shirt and she had a smudge of mud on her face. Clutched to her chest she had a ball off fur? Had she climbed under there to rescue a teddy bear Peeta wondered… 

“Pumpkin what have you got there?” he asked looking down at her. 

Peeta marveled not for the first time that his daughter had inherited the Mellark blue eyes. When she was born she was all Katniss -small in stature, olive skin, dark hair and scowl, but as the weeks went on Peeta noticed that her nose was definitely his mother’s and the dimple in her cheek was just like his older brothers. 

After bombing in District 12 that had killed his family Peeta -although he didn’t dwell on it, he had thought that he could be last blue eyed Mellark but on that cold December morning when Katniss told him she was pregnant he never expected that Lyra when she was born would give him back some pieces of his past. 

“I found a puppy daddy. Look” she held out the ball of fur and sure enough it was a puppy, a tiny black and brown thing. And it did not look very well. 

“Lyra, where did you find that?” Peeta was slightly horrified at the sight before him. 

“I was exploring and I heard a little noise, and then I looked under the bush and I saw his little face. So I rescued him. Someone stuffed him in a pillowcase! Daddy, can you believe that? Now can we we keep him?” Lyra spoke rapidly while all the time squishing the puppy. 

Just at the moment Katniss came through the back gate. 

“Keep what?” She asked, leaning in to give Peeta a kiss in the check and took in the sight of her messy daughter. 

Lyra allowed Katniss to look at the puppy before launching into the story she has just told Peeta. 

“I just know we can make her better.” she finished saying triumphantly. 

Her parents glanced at each other unsure what to do, but like most parents they didn’t want their child to get hurt if they avoid it. 

“Lyra why don’t you bring the pup over to the picnic table and let me and your mom take a look?” Peeta asked. 

Their daughter marched over all the while telling the dog what she was doing. Once she was happy, she gently placed the dog on the table.

Katniss and Peeta followed her and gently moving Lyra aside they took their first good luck at the animal. 

It was small, and it’s fur was matted, there was a cut on its leg that looked and smelled appalling. 

The animal looked half starved and Katniss instructed her daughter to go get a cup of water and a spoon. As she ran off, her parents turned to each other. 

“What are we going to do? The poor thing looks half dead.” muttered Peeta who without even noticing had reached out and was rubbing the dog's head. 

Katniss smiled at her husband as she watched their daughter rush through thr door “She reminds me so much of Prim sometimes…. it’s strange they never met but part of her is just so Prim. We’ll take it home, clean it up and make the little guy comfortable…… I don’t think he’s got much life left in him-“

Lyra had returned and between the three of them they managed to get the dog to take some water. 

“Lyra, this little guy is very poorly. We’re going to bring him home and look after him and try make him better.” Peeta couldn’t bear to discuss the possibility that the animal could die - they would cross that bridge when it happened. 

“Ok. We should give her a bath and brush her hair. That ALWAYS makes mommy feel better doesn’t it Daddy? You can do the bath ok? She has no name. hmmmmm we need a name. I’ll think about that later. Will we go?” 

Katniss grinned at the whirlwind that was her daughter and nodded. 

**** 

Peeta was carrying the dog while Katniss and Lyra walked beside him. 

Growing up neither he nor Katniss had ever had a dog. The reality was in 12 a dog was an expense most families couldn’t afford. 

He wondered where this little guy had come from, feeling sorry that someone thought so little of him that they just tossed him aside. Peeta looked at the sleeping animal in his arms and vowed that the Mellarks would make whatever time he had left as good as possible. 

Katniss rang the animal hospital when they got in and explained what they had found. The vet told them that the dog would need to be fed every few hours, explained how they should “mimic” the position of feeding from its mother and be careful not to overfeed as the puppy could get sick. 

“It’s like having a baby!!!” Shouted Lyra excited beyond belief at today’s developments. 

Peeta asked her to help gather blankets to make a bed, really it was to allow Katniss to fully discuss the dog's condition. 

When she hung up Peeta could see the tears in her eyes. 

“Oh no sweetheart what is it?” But Katniss wasn’t crying, she was trying to hold back laughter. 

“Peeta newborn puppies can’t poop or wee on their own. If this is a newborn we’ll need to stimulate the movement… with a wet flannel and rub it’s anus.” Peeta watched as his normally sensible wife collapsed into a fit of laughter and this in turn caused Peeta to begin laughing and that’s how Lyra found them. 

She left her parents and whispered to the dog “Grown ups can be so weird. Just you wait and see.”

**** 

For the next few weeks the Mellarks cared for the dog. 

Peeta confirmed that the puppy was a boy and not a girl. Which exasperated Lyra as she had finally selected a name “Princess Sparkleshine Daisy” and now had to think up more names. 

Against the odds the dog began to grow stronger. The vet looked at the cut on his leg and was able to patch him up. She praised the small family on the exceptional care they had given to the now thriving dog.

Katniss and Peeta marveled at their daughter’s devotion to the dog, she fed him, brushed him, sang to him and had the absolute best conversations with him. 

One morning she was lying down beside him and was explaining who exactly everyone was in his new family. As he was getting bigger she worried he might want to leave so decided it was time to have a talk with him.

Peeta and Katniss stood quietly listening to her.

“So puppy. How do you like your new family? My daddy and mommy are like you…. I mean they aren’t dogs, but their families aren’t here. My grandma Lily lives near District 4, but my other granny and grandpops live in the sky, not on a hovercraft but in heaven. It’s like not space or anything I think it’s like a garden… or something. You go there when you die I guess so that’s why I’ve never met them.” 

She took a deep breath and continued “My aunty Prim and uncles Rye and Barley are there too. There were some bad times here before I was born. My mommy and daddy helped to make things better though.” 

There was silence and then Lyra started talking again. 

“Uncle Haymitch is down the street. He has gooses- no I mean geese. Maybe you could be their friends? Do you like birds? Hmmmm they can be cranky but so can Haymitch.” Lyra giggled at this. 

“If you decide to stay with us and not go looking for your family, we’re very nice. Daddy makes the best cookies, Mommy is a great singer and even though I may be small but I am mighty so I will protect you and brush your hair and bring you for walks and let you sleep in my room. We could have so much fun.”

She continued babbling and didn't hear her parents slip away. 

“How did we get so lucky with such a smart and wonderful daughter.” Katniss sobbed quietly into Peeta's chest. 

“Katniss, with your brains and my beauty any child of ours was bound to be special, hmmm.” He joked. 

“Lyra is special, not because of who we are, but let’s face it in Panem she will be looked at and treated differently for that reason. She is our happiness, out proof that life is better. We will always protect her as best we can, and thanks to her the Everdeen and Mellarks live on. Someday she’ll learn more about Snow and what he did to us, but she’s right she may be small but she is mighty.”

He squeezed his wife and kissed her head.

“I know,I know but it’s so tough.” Katniss sighed, squeezing him back. 

“I know baby and we’ll be with her every step of the way. We are a team. Always. Now I have to ask. Are we keeping the dog?” 

The Mellark family did keep the dog. And Lyra decided his name would be “Tiny” since he was so small. He did not stay small. 

Turns out Tiny was some sort of husky Labrador mix and grew very, very big.

Big enough in fact that when Asher Mellark was born there was plenty of Tiny to go around Lyra was happy to share her fluffy furball rescue dog with him.


End file.
